There was a delay, and then the door opened. Marco looked annoyed.
"Cassie. What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you."
"To me? What about?"
"About yesterday," I said.
He hesitated. "Look, I'm spending the day with my dad, okay? We're thinking maybe we'll . .
. you know, do something together."
"That's good," I said. Over Marco's shoulder I could see his father. He was wearing a bathrobe and sitting on the couch. He was staring at the TV. That was normal for any dad, I guess, on a weekend morning. But I had the feeling that Marco's dad was always sitting right there in front of the TV.
"Look, Marco, I just want to talk for a minute. Can I come in?"
"No, no," he said hastily. He stepped outside onto the concrete breezeway. Down below us was a swimming pool. It was drained and closed. Leaves covered the bottom.
"Marco, I wanted to talk to you about yesterday."
"What about it?"
"You could have been killed. It would have been my fault. This whole mission was my idea.
Jake asked me if we should do it and I said yes."
Marco rolled his eyes. "That's it? Look, it wasn't your fault. It's this whole thing we're doing, this whole Animorph thing. I mean, it's been dangerous right from the start. It's insanely dangerous. What else is new?"
I shrugged. "What's new, I guess, is that the other times it was always someone else's idea."
"Oh, I get it. You don't like responsibility?"
43 I winced. Was that it? Was I afraid of taking responsibility? "I don't want to get my friends killed."
"And let me assure you your friends don't want to get killed, either," Marco said with a laugh.
"I am completely opposed to getting killed." He grew serious, even sad. "But you know what? Sometimes bad things happen. That's the way it is."
I leaned against the rail, looking down at the dismal empty pool. "I see things die all the time, " I said. "Animals, I mean. Sometimes you can't save them. Sometimes we even have to put them down - end their suffering. But my dad makes those decisions. Not me. He's the vet. I'm just his assistant."
"Look, here I am, all alive," Marco said, tap ping his chest. "Get over it. I didn't have to go. It was my choice."
"Were you scared?"
For a while he didn't answer. He just came over and leaned on the railing beside me. "I'm scared all the time now, Cassie," he said at last. "I'm scared to fight the Yeerks, and I'm scared of what will happen if I don't. I look at Tobias, and what happened to him scares me to death. What if I get stuck in morph someday? And most of all, I am scared of ... of him."
I didn't have to ask who Marco meant by him. Visser Three.
"That first time, in the construction site, when he killed . . . when he murdered the Andalite."
Marco made a twisted smile. "I see that in my head every day. And the Yeerk pool." He shook his head. "That's something I would like to forget, too."
"Yes," I agreed. "There has been a lot of fear."
"So was I afraid yesterday? Bet on it. I was scared plenty. It was like, man, it's not bad enough we have to fight Hork-Bajir and Taxxons and Visser Three, we also have to fight sharks? Sharks?" He laughed, and hearing him brought the laughter out of me.
We both just stood there and giggled like idiots for a few minutes. It was that laughter you get after something really tense has happened. Relief laughter. "We're still alive" laughter.
"Urn, by the way, I was going to wait and tell everyone at the same time," Marco said, "but I think we have a problem."
"What problem?"
"It was in the newspaper this morning - two stories. One is about this guy who is going to be looking for some supposedly lost treasure ship off the coast. The other was this story about some big marine biologist guy who has a ship and is going to be doing some underwater exploration off our coast."
"Yes? So?"
44 "So, all of a sudden our nearby ocean seems to be very interesting to people. Treasure hunters and an underwater exploration? At the same time?"
"Controllers?"
He nodded. "I think so. I think it's all a cover story to explain why two ships will be out there with lots of divers in the water. I think it's them, all right. And I think they're looking for the same thing you're looking for."
I felt weak. The image the whale had given me surfaced in my mind. And the faint cry in my dreams, the cry for help.
"I ... I can't ask anyone to go out there again," I whispered. "This time we might not be so lucky."
Marco looked uncomfortable. "Cassie, you know how I feel about all this. I think we have to take care of ourselves first. And our own families." He glanced back at his apartment door.
"On the other hand ... I guess after what the Andalite did for us, I wouldn't feel like much of a human being if I didn't try to save whoever is out there."
"I don't know who's out there," I said. "I don't know if it's even real."
"But you think it's an Andalite."
"I think it is. But Marco, I don't know. If someone gets hurt. . . killed . . . just because I have these dreams - I can't make that kind of decision."
"Yes, but can you decide to do nothing? That's a decision, too."
I had to smile. "Marco, you know, for a guy who's always joking around and being annoying, you're awfully smart."
"Yeah, I know, but don't tell anyone. It would destroy my image."
I started to walk away.
"You know what was strange about yesterday?" Marco said.
"What?"
"The sharks. They were so totally deadly. I mean, we worry about Hork-Bajir and Taxxons and Visser Three. You kind of forget that right here on little old planet Earth there are creatures just as tough and dangerous. It would be funny if it wasn't some alien that ended up getting us, but some normal Earth creature."
I didn't think it was funny at all.
Marco grinned at my stone face. "Okay, not funny ha-ha. More like funny weird."
45 Chapter 14
"Okay," Jake said. "Here's what we know. Or at least, what we think we know."
We were all at Rachel's house again. It was a few hours after I had gone to see Marco. Tobias was perched on the windowsill. He didn't feel all that comfortable being inside for long. He liked the feel of the wind and the open air.
"First, we believe that somehow a surviving Andalite, or maybe more than one Andalite, is trapped out in the ocean."
"Hopefully Andalites can hold their breath for a really long time," Marco joked.
"Second, Cassie believes she can find this Andalite, thanks to the information from the whale."
Everyone kept a straight face for about ten seconds. Then, all at once, everyone cracked up.
"Information from a whale," Marco repeated, giggling.
"Have our lives gotten really weird, or is it just me?" Tobias asked.
"Weird? Weird?" Marco crowed. "The talking bird wants to know if getting information on the location of an alien from a whale, that you've just saved from sharks, by turning into dolphins . . . You're suggesting that's weird?"
Jake smiled. "Well, stay tuned. It just gets weirder. Cassie and I have been going over maps.